Some large highway trucks have what are sometimes called sleeper cabs that provide sleeping accommodation for one or more persons in a sleeping area located behind driver and passenger seats. The sleeping area may be equipped with various accessories that provide useful conveniences during long haul runs. One such accessory is a small refrigerator that includes a refrigeration system for keeping the interior of the refrigerator and its contents cold.
Because its mass is not insignificant due to the presence of refrigeration equipment, such a refrigerator must be secured to the cab in a suitable manner so that it can withstand forces acting on it while the truck is traveling over the road, including specified forces that are might be imposed on it in the event of a crash.
Because available space is typically at a premium inside the sleeper area, a refrigerator may be housed inside a cabinet. Because the cabinet will present the outward appearance of the refrigerator, the appearance of the refrigerator casing is essentially unimportant, and that allows the cost of the refrigerator to be minimized. A door cover of suitable outward appearance may still be attached over the front of the refrigerator door to provide desired coordination with the cabinet.
In order for the cabinet to be mounted in a manner that can comply with relevant specifications regarding loading, the cabinet may have to be essentially permanently mounted. Such mounting may be facilitated or perhaps even made possible only if the refrigerator is left out while the cabinet is being attached to cab structure.
After the cabinet has been mounted, it is still necessary to mount the refrigerator inside the cabinet, and in the presence of limited space, that task may prove difficult and inefficient for production vehicle build.
Even if the refrigerator were assembled into the cabinet prior to mounting the cabinet in a vehicle, manipulation of the assembly would be more difficult because of the weight that the refrigerator adds.